1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile accessories, and more particularly relates to an automobile protection cover that can be easily and quickly deployed and stored by user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automobile cover is an effective means of protecting automobiles from metal corrosion, paint degradation and interior materials aging due to harmful effects of the environment such as corrosives, airborne contaminates, sunlight, ultraviolet rays, dew, rain, snow, bird dropping, tree sap and abrasive windblown sand. Automobile cover is also useful as a solar shield to keep the interior of an automobile cool in hot and sunny climates. Although the numerous benefits of using an automobile cover are well known and variously designed automobile covers are readily available in the market, use of automobile covers is in fact very limited and many car users choose to utilize window blind as a solar shield for partial protection of automobile interiors. This inventor believes that the fundamental reason that has affected the widespread, routine and daily usage of conventional automobile covers is the inconvenience of using such covers. A conventional automobile cover typically consists of a piece of flexible fabric that is shaped to surround an automobile body and that is folded and stored in the trunk of the automobile. The deployment of the cover requires the user to go through many steps such as unstowing the cover, locating the perimeter of the opening of the cover, positioning the cover over the automobile, and then securing the cover by fasteners or elastic materials and the like. The storage of the cover also requires the user to go through many steps such as removing the cover from a vehicle, folding the cover, packing it into a container, and thereafter storing the container. Typically it takes about ten minutes to deploy or store an automobile cover. Most automobile users find it troublesome and time consuming to utilize a conventional automobile cover, particularly when the cover is wet and soiled in a raining, snowy or windy day. Many users have experienced difficulties in deploying or storing an automobile cover alone and have to ask others for help. In addition, conventional car cover may be easily stolen by thief or be blown away by stiff wind.
The most common solution proposed to overcome these problems has been to store the flexible cover on variously designed wind-up rolls or similar devices using either manually operated or motor driven rolls. This type of roll is typically placed inside a container so that when the cover is wound on the roll, it resides within the container that is secured to the front, rear end or other parts of an automobile. The container may also be permanently mounted near or inside of the automobile bumper. From its rolled-up stored position the flexible car cover can be unrolled and pulled toward the opposite end of the car and operatively secured over the car. Examples of this type of ‘roll-up’ car cover can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,918,423; 3,222,102; 3,992,053; 4,432,581; 4,519,644; 4,657,298; 4,720,135; 4,727,898; 4,732,421; 4,856,824; 5,056,839; 5,078,330; 5,086,988; 5,176,421 and 5,597,196. A typical example of such roll-up car cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,330 that proposes a battery powered electric motor driven rewinding and storing apparatus for flexible vehicle covers. The device is stored in the trunk, and is pivoted out of the trunk and held in place on the bumper when in use. Its container is anchored to the rear bumper of the automobile using a pair of elastic straps and metal hooks. Another typical roll-up car cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,421 that teaches a flexible car cover having one end attached to a rotatable spool housed in a containment tube. The spool may be rotated by means of a pre-loaded spring, electric motor or manual crank. The tube is located in the trunk for storage, and is pivoted out of the trunk and towards the back bumper prior to applying the cover to the automobile. U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,196 provides another design that the car cover is wound around a roller assembly, which is stored in the trunk compartment of the automobile. The cover can be unwound from and wound back onto the roller with the assistance of the spring biased roller. In general, all these roll-up car cover designs have made some improvements to conventional car covers, however a critical deficiency of this type of cover system is that they utilize complex roller structures, which unfortunately often experience snagging or jamming problems when winding and unwinding the cover. The installation of such relatively heavy roller structures often requires that the vehicle itself be altered.
Another type of car cover design is based on various methods of anchoring flexible covers to automobile body, avoiding the use of wind-up rolls. Examples of this type of anchored car cover can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,596,418; 4,718,711; 4,799,728; 4,825,889; 4,925,234; 5,022,700; 5,029,933; 5,088,788; 5,188,417; 5,294,167; 5,364,155; 5,409,286; 5,855,406 and 6,092,857. Typical examples of such anchoring car cover are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,718,711 and 5,029,933 that describe car covers that are simply anchored to the interior trunk hinge by straps. The covers can be deployed by pulling out from the space between the hinges and stored by rolling up about itself like a bed-roll. U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,889 discloses a vehicle cover that uses flexible tie strips formed of an elastic cord with plastic coated hooks to anchor the cover sheet to the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,418 proposes to anchor the car cover through a string, a ring and hooks that are attached to the trunk and underside of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,155 discloses a car cover that is anchored to automobile body using straps and hook-and-loop fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,234 discloses a cover that is simply folded, accordion style, into the trunk. Closure of the trunk clamps a back end of the cover sheet in place to firmly anchor the cover sheet in place in its operative position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,857 discloses a car cover assembly that includes a duffle bag as the cover container, which is attached via two straps to an anchor pipe. The container is anchored to the automobile when the user drops the anchor pipe inside of the trunk and shut the trunk lid of the automobile, allowing the trunk lid to catch the anchor pipe. All these prior art designs have made some improvements to conventional car covers, however they still have problems for automobile covers being deployed and stored quickly and easily. Firstly, the anchoring mechanisms that disclosed in these prior arts have certain deficiencies. For instance, the method of anchoring a car cover with its container being attached to the hinges of the trunk via straps is cumbersome. The straps must stretch across the full width of the trunk and then be tied to the hinges of the trunk, and thus the straps may affect the storage function of the trunk. When the trunk lid is being closed or opened, the straps would draw the container up and down, causing the container to scratch the finish of the automobile body. The anchoring mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,857 relies on the closed trunk lid to anchor the cover container through straps and a piece of anchor pipe. The user has to hold on the container whenever the trunk lid is open otherwise the container would drop to the ground, which is particularly troublesome if the ground is wet and soiled. Secondly, the prior art containers are not suitable for quick storage and deployment of covers since the opening of these containers are usually small and are usually made of flexible materials. For instance, the container utilized in U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,857 is approximately 20 inches long by 12 inches in diameter, which is much shorter than a median size cover that has approximate dimensions of 70 inches in width. Such a small container opening would require that the cover being compactly folded before it could be inserted into and stored within the container; and would also require the cover being unfolded before it could be deployed from the container. The flexible opening of the container also makes the folding and unfolding steps more time consuming and troublesome, especially when the cover is wet and soiled. Thirdly, the prior art designs often offer no mechanism of storing a wet cover in a raining or snowy day. This is a problem since a wet and soiled cover would dampen the trunk and thus cause inconvenience of storage.
This inventor believes that these deficiencies have seriously limited the widespread, routine and daily usage of automobile covers. The object of the present invention is to provide an improved automobile cover apparatus which eliminates or minimizes the disadvantages associated with prior art car cover designs.